Play Ball!

The Toronto Blue Jays will hold tryout camps for replacement players in southern California this week.

Ontario law forbids the Blue Jays from using replacement players in the SkyDome, but Toronto has decided to play exhibition games in Florida starting March 3.

Players from 19 to 25 years old will be asked to show their skills. Players can have previous pro experience, but they can’t be under contract with a professional team. If they’re amateurs, they must have exhausted their college or high school eligibility.

Baseball owners told the players’ association its attempt to gain free agency for more than 800 players was without merit.

Last Thursday, union head Donald Fehr sent owners a letter saying that 1995 contract offers were invalid because owners made unilateral changes in the uniform player’s contract.

Since owners aren’t likely to let arbitrator George Nicolau decide the dispute, the union probably will have to win a lawsuit to enforce its position.